DENVER, Colo. — The Air Force plans to whittle down the variety of corporations working to construct the primary batch of collaborative combat aircraft to 2 or three over the subsequent few months, the service’s secretary said Tuesday.
And the Air Force plans to award contracts for the subsequent round of CCAs — drones loaded with autonomous software that may fly themselves into battle alongside crewed fighters — in fiscal 2025, Frank Kendall said during a roundtable on the Air and Space Force Association’s Air Warfare Symposium here.
This next round of CCA development could also involve participation by the US’ closest and “most strategic” international partners, he said.
On the primary increment of CCAs, the Air Force has contracts with five corporations: Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, General Atomics and Anduril. Kendall said the Air Force would really like to chop that to a few, but acknowledged budgetary limitations will make selecting just two corporations more likely.
The Air Force plans to field several several types of CCAs, with different capabilities and levels of survivability, to perform a wide selection of missions including strikes, surveillance, jamming, and serving as decoys to attract enemy fire.
Kendall said the Air Force is working on its first two “increments” of CCAs as a part of its five-year plan, and moving with a “sense of urgency” on this system. As with the primary increment of CCAs, he said, the contracts for the second increment will cover concept definition and preliminary design work.
The Air Force will next concentrate on moving CCAs into production, Kendall said, and in the subsequent few years will further downselect the businesses working on the primary increment of CCAs. Kendall said it stays uncertain what number of corporations will move into production, adding that there may very well be a minimum of two firms working on the initial batch of CCAs.
Andrew Hunter, the service’s assistant secretary for acquisition, technology and logistics, said the Air Force’s CCA program has been closely consulting with Air Combat Command to see what type of capabilities these aircraft would want in combat.
And the Air Force received a terrific deal of feedback from industry about how they might meet the service’s loose goal of fielding about 1,000 CCAs, Hunter said.
Firms who didn’t make the cut for the primary increment will get a second shot in the subsequent increment, Hunter said.
Not less than one defense contractor is hoping to do exactly that. In an interview with Defense News Tuesday, Steve Fendley, president of the unmanned systems division at Kratos Defense and Security Solutions, said that while the corporate didn’t make the cut for the primary round of CCAs, it stays very keen on this system and plans to compete for the subsequent version.
“We’re in the combination,” Fendley said. “A part of what’s essential to the Air Force, and to us, is having the ability to see the range of capability systems and the range of cost systems to satisfy all of the several scenarios and mission challenges” for which the Air Force wants CCAs.
A lot of the attention paid to CCAs has thus far focused on the businesses constructing the physical drone portion, Hunter said, but “one other slew of contractors” is working alongside them on software and other elements of this system.
That work will proceed other than the person increments to develop the CCA air vehicles, he said. And developing that type of “foundational architecture” for CCAs is one potential area on which the Air Force can work with international partners, Hunter added.
He said making a software core that enables a CCA to operate autonomously is the toughest a part of this program. The Air Force can get it done in the primary batch of CCAs, he noted — but there can be room to enhance.
“Now we have a high degree of confidence that we will deliver useful autonomy in increment one,” Hunter said. “But it is going to be more limited than I feel what you’ll see down the road.”
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.